1. Field of the Invention
Certain inventive aspects relate to a display apparatus, and more particularly, to a display apparatus including a display panel for producing an image, a chassis arranged at the rear of the display panel to thereby support the display panel, and circuit boards arranged spaced apart from the chassis by a predetermined gap and connected to the display panel.
2. Description of the Related Technology
FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view illustrating a structure by which a circuit board is connected and fixed to a chassis in a conventional plasma display apparatus.
Referring to FIG. 1, a plasma display apparatus 10 includes a display panel 20, a chassis 40 and circuit boards 50. The display panel 20 produces an image, and the chassis 40 is arranged at the rear of the display panel 20 and supports the display panel 20.
The circuit boards 50 are arranged at the rear of the chassis 40, and drive the display panel 20. A connection cable is connected between the circuit boards 50, and and the display panel 20.
Semiconductor devices are installed on the circuit board 50. In this case, pins on the semiconductor device protrude from the rear side of the circuit board 50 through the board and out the front side. In order to prevent such pins from contacting the rear surface of the chassis 40, thereby causing an electrical short, the circuit board 50 must be spaced apart from the chassis 40 by a predetermined gap.
Accordingly, bosses 89 of a predetermined height are formed on the chassis 40, and holes 50h are formed at portions of the circuit board 50 corresponding to the bosses 89. When the circuit board 50 is fixed to the chassis 40, screws 99 are inserted through the holes 50h of the circuit board 50 into the bosses 89, whereby a gap corresponding to the height of the boss 89 is formed between the chassis 40 and the circuit board 50.
In order to fix the circuit board 50 to the chassis 40, the screws 99 should be fixed to the bosses 89 by their rotation after passing through the holes 50h. However, such a screwing task requires quite a bit of time, and the circuit board 50 may be damaged by mistakes made during the task. Moreover, when many screws 99 are needed for the circuit board 50 to be able to endure vibration/drop tests, the screwing task requires much more time, whereby the manufacturing cost for the plasma display apparatus is greatly increased. In addition, the chassis 40 is generally manufactured through a press mold or a casting mold. In this case, an additional process and cost is required to form the bosses 89 in such a mold.
Generally, the chassis 40 is made of metal so as to support the display panel 20 and to function as a heat exhaust plate. Recently, the chassis 40 has been made of aluminum so as to reduce the weight of the plasma display apparatus and to increase the heat exhaustion properties thereof. However, a chassis 40 made of aluminum tends to flex because it has a relatively large surface area in comparison to its thickness. Accordingly, so as to increase the rigidity of the chassis 40, a reinforcement member 45 is formed on a rear surface of the chassis 40. However, the reinforcement member 45 needs an additional fixing process. Also, the reinforcement member 45 increases the thickness of the chassis 40 and consequently increases the total thickness of the plasma display apparatus.
The circuit boards 50 may need to be arranged spaced apart from the rear surface of the chassis 40 by different gaps according to heat generation values of devices mounted thereon. In this case, the bosses 89 used for the circuit boards 50 should have different heights according to the corresponding circuit boards 50. Specifically, when the bosses 89 are separately manufactured and then fixed to the rear surface of the chassis 40, the manufacturing process of the plasma display apparatus becomes more complex, and consequently the manufacturing time and cost is undesirably increased.